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Friday, April 12, 2013

Giving Back

I have been thinking for quite some time that I do not volunteer enough, that I may not do my share of charity work or donating. I see what many of my friends do and, in comparison, I seem lazy or selfish. I have also seen many of my fellow athletes training and racing for a particular charity or cause. I have done a little of that when it has been required, but no more. Of course, the majority of the races I enter are held to raise money for some charitable cause, so I have helped some. Overall, I just do not feel that I have made an impact.

When I started thinking about training and racing for a cause, my goal was to choose something that was important to me and would thus motivate me. I considered cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. All good causes, but which organization? Also, how much money actually goes to the patient? Then, I started thinking about my role in health care and my philosophy. I thought: my approach is to educate, using prevention as the primary treatment. So...perhaps I should focus my fund raising efforts there. But, how? Anyway...after more thought, I decided to look to my alma mater, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Specifically, I graduated from the Kinesiology department in what is now called the College of Applied Health Sciences.

After sharing several emails with Olympian Jean Driscoll, I decided to raise funds for the Kinesiology and Communtiy Health Annual Fund. My goal will be to help fund education for students who can help prevent disease; create educators of those people who need to learn to take care of themselves, to stay healthy by being proactive and preventing disease with the near-panaceas of good nutrition and physical activity.

So, at this time, I will be accepting donations for U of I AHS students as payment for my bike fitting services. (To learn more about bike fitting, read this and this.) I will, of course accept donations without a bike fitting. Any amount is appreciated. You may also donate online if you wish. Help me improve the quality of education for our future fitness, health, and wellness professionals.